Systems and methods for online auction of diverse electronic advertisements

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are disclosed for executing an online auction of diverse online advertisements. One method includes receiving inventory information for serving ads on a publisher web page, the inventory information including at least a first ad configuration different from a second ad configuration, each of the first and second ad configurations defining one or both of an ad size and an ad attribute; receiving or generating a plurality of ad bids to serve ads in the first ad configuration and to serve ads in the second ad configuration; and awarding impressions to one or both of the bids to serve ads in the first ad configuration and the second ad configuration, in a proportion based at least in part on a revenue amount associated with the bids to serve ads in the first ad configuration and bids to serve ads in the second ad configuration.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Various embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally tomanaging online auctions of electronic advertisements. Morespecifically, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure relate tosystems and methods for managing auctions of diverse web and mobileadvertisements over the Internet.

BACKGROUND

Internet advertisers often create online advertising campaigns thatinclude numerous advertisements (e.g., “banner ads”) designed to beplaced on websites during a specified period of time. For example, acompany may design several types or sizes of advertisements for aproduct, and may wish to have the advertisements placed on websitesduring the sale of the product. Each time one of these advertisements isshown to a website visitor is known as an “impression.” When shown theadvertisement, the user may select, or “click,” on the advertisement ormay take another “action” such as completing an online form to requestmore information. If the user later purchases the product, the purchaseis referred to as a “conversion” of the impression.

Advertisers may be interested in impressions (e.g., if they are tryingto increase awareness of a brand), clicks (e.g., if they are trying toprovide more information about a product), or conversions (e.g., if theyare trying to make sales or get new users to sign up for services).Advertisers may pay based on, for example, impressions, clicks, orconversions over the course of an advertising campaign. An advertisermay have a spending plan that specifies how the advertiser wishes tospend its budget during a campaign. For example, the advertiser may wishto spend money only on certain days during the campaign, or may wish tospend evenly over every day of the campaign. Each advertiser may have adaily budget (e.g., $1,000 per day) and/or a daily goal of impressionvolume (e.g., 1000 impressions per day), known as “daily delivery” or“pacing.” Each advertiser may also desire an ad campaign to performcertain types of consumer targeting and/or achieve a particulardistribution of advertisements across various websites (“spreading”).Moreover, an advertiser may desire to control which types and sizes oftheir ads are displayed.

As a result, various techniques are used to manage online ad deliverywithin and among advertising campaigns. In certain advertising networks,ad servers receive impression requests from publishers (e.g., websitesor other entities with an inventory of online ad space). The ad serversmay group ad requests from various advertising campaigns, e.g.,according to impressions to be “targeted” based on a combination ofattributes defined by the ad requests. In addition to targetingrequirements, each ad request received from an advertiser generallyincludes a “bid price” and possibly a “bid allocation.” The bid price isthe amount of money offered by the ad request for placement of thetargeted impression. The bid allocation, if present, is the ratio (e.g.,point value from 0 to 1) of targeted inventory the ad campaign iswilling to purchase at the bid price. The list of ads that target acertain impression request may be sorted in descending order accordingto their bid price, and then placed in groups such that the sum of theirbid allocations equals 1. If the ad request with the highest bid pricehas a bid allocation of 1, or if the bid allocation does not exist, itwill always win the impression. Such ad delivery methods ensure that theadvertiser with an ad with the greatest expected value is able topurchase as much inventory as desired. These methods also reveal boththe marginal value of the impression inventory (e.g., the cost requiredper impression), and the amount of volume (e.g., the number ofimpressions) purchased at each price.

In this type of competitive bidding marketplace, publishers typicallyauction their advertising inventory units based on a preset arrangementor layout designed for their web pages. For example, one publisher mightplan for a blog page or news page to always be substantially filled withpublishing content except for a “leaderboard” ad (e.g., having 728×90pixels) at the top of a page, and a “wide skyscraper” ad (e.g., having160×600 pixels) at the right-hand side of a page. Thus, that publishermight consistently submit requests for bids on those two ad formats eachtime the publisher's page is displayed. In some cases, a publisher mightknow that they have available advertising space that could fit, forexample, either two “medium rectangle” ads (e.g., having 300×250 pixels)or one “half page” ad (e.g., having 300×600 pixels), but not both. Inother words, the publisher might have to decide whether to request thedisplay of two small ads each time the publisher's web page isdisplayed, or to request the display of one larger ad each time the pageis displayed. This also may be true of ad attributes other than shape orsize. For example, a publisher might have an ad cell on its page thatcould accommodate either a standard, image-type display ad, or a rich,e.g., video or flash-type ad. Again, the publisher might have to decidewhether to request the display of a standard image-type display ad eachtime the publisher's web page is displayed, or to request the display ofa rich, e.g., video or flash-type, ad each time the page is displayed.

This existing system is less than optimal for several reasons. First ofall, the requirement for publishers to statically set the desired sizesand attributes of requested ads results in sub-optimal revenue yield.For example, at some particular time of the day, advertisers' bids mayresult in higher revenue for impressions of the two smaller ads, whereasat another time of day, advertisers' bids might result in higher revenuefor impressions of the one larger ad. More generally, the existingregime results in less variety and selection available for advertisersto consider and purchase. While this lack of variety and selectionultimately expresses itself in lower revenue, it also has the effect ofcontributing to reduced satisfaction among advertisers. For instance, anadvertiser might be interested in purchasing a very large volume of someparticular size or type of advertisement, only to find that an online adauction contains mostly impression requests for another type of ad.

Accordingly, a need exists for systems and methods for facilitatingonline auctions of diverse electronic advertisements. More specifically,a need exists for systems and methods for auctioning electronicadvertisements having diverse sizes and attributes. The presentdisclosure is directed to improving the auction of web and mobileadvertising by solving one or more of the above-mentioned challenges.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

According to certain embodiments, computer-implemented methods aredisclosed for executing an online auction of diverse onlineadvertisements. One method includes receiving, over a network, inventoryinformation for serving ads on a publisher web page, the inventoryinformation including at least a first ad configuration and a second adconfiguration different from the first ad configuration, each of thefirst and second ad configurations defining an ad attribute; receiving,over the network, or generating, using a processor, a plurality of adbids, the plurality of ad bids including bids to serve ads in the firstad configuration and bids to serve ads in the second ad configuration;receiving, over the network, or generating, using a processor, aplurality of ad requests, the plurality of ad requests includingrequests to serve ads on the publisher web page in the first adconfiguration and requests to serve ads on the publisher web page in thesecond ad configuration; and awarding impressions to one or both of thebids to serve ads in the first ad configuration and the bids to serveads in the second ad configuration, in a proportion based at least inpart on a revenue amount associated with the bids to serve ads in thefirst ad configuration and bids to serve ads in the second adconfiguration.

According to certain embodiments, systems are disclosed for executing anonline auction of diverse online advertisements. One system includes adata storage device storing instructions for executing an online auctionof diverse online advertisements; and a processor configured to executethe instructions to perform a method including: receiving, over anetwork, inventory information for serving ads on a publisher web page,the inventory information including at least a first ad configurationand a second ad configuration different from the first ad configuration,each of the first and second ad configurations defining an ad attribute;receiving, over the network, or generating, using a processor, aplurality of ad bids, the plurality of ad bids including bids to serveads in the first ad configuration and bids to serve ads in the second adconfiguration; receiving, over the network, or generating, using aprocessor, a plurality of ad requests, the plurality of ad requestsincluding requests to serve ads on the publisher web page in the firstad configuration and requests to serve ads on the publisher web page inthe second ad configuration; and awarding impressions to one or both ofthe bids to serve ads in the first ad configuration and the bids toserve ads in the second ad configuration, in a proportion based at leastin part on a revenue amount associated with the bids to serve ads in thefirst ad configuration and bids to serve ads in the second adconfiguration.

According to certain embodiments, a computer-readable medium isdisclosed storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, causethe processor to execute an online auction of diverse onlineadvertisements, including: receiving, over a network, inventoryinformation for serving ads on a publisher web page, the inventoryinformation including at least a first ad configuration and a second adconfiguration different from the first ad configuration, each of thefirst and second ad configurations defining an ad attribute; receiving,over the network, or generating, using a processor, a plurality of adbids, the plurality of ad bids including bids to serve ads in the firstad configuration and bids to serve ads in the second ad configuration;receiving, over the network, or generating, using a processor, aplurality of ad requests, the plurality of ad requests includingrequests to serve ads on the publisher web page in the first adconfiguration and requests to serve ads on the publisher web page in thesecond ad configuration; and awarding impressions to one or both of thebids to serve ads in the first ad configuration and the bids to serveads in the second ad configuration, in a proportion based at least inpart on a revenue amount associated with the bids to serve ads in thefirst ad configuration and bids to serve ads in the second adconfiguration.

Additional objects and advantages of the disclosed embodiments will beset forth in part in the description that follows, and in part will beapparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of thedisclosed embodiments. The objects and advantages of the disclosedembodiments will be realized and attained by means of the elements andcombinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory onlyand are not restrictive of the disclosed embodiments, as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate various exemplary embodiments andtogether with the description, serve to explain the principles of thedisclosed embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an environment in which electronicadvertising may be performed and a system for managing auctions ofelectronic advertising, according to an exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a diagram of information flow between entities involved inonline auctions of web and mobile advertisements, according to anexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for managing auctions ofdiverse web and mobile advertisements over the Internet, according to anexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for managing auctions ofdiverse web and mobile advertisements over the Internet, according to anexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 5A-5C are schematic diagrams reflecting an auction of diverse weband/or mobile advertisements over the Internet, according to anexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 6A-6C are schematic diagrams reflecting an auction of diverse weband/or mobile advertisements over the Internet, according to anexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIGS. 7A and 7B are schematic diagrams reflecting an auction of diverseweb and/or mobile advertisements over the Internet, according to anexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the exemplary embodiments of thedisclosure, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be usedthroughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

The present disclosure describes systems and methods for onlineauctioning of diverse online advertisements, including web and mobileadvertisements of various types, sizes, and attributes. According toembodiments of the present disclosure, an online auction may include aplurality of diverse configurations of ad cells requested by a publisherto be served with ads. As a result, even if a publisher has online areafor only a subset of the plurality of possible ads, the publisher mayreceive bids on all of the possible ads, and award impressions to thesubset of advertising bids that result in the highest revenue or otherbusiness goal. For example, if a publisher has online area for eitherone large ad or two small ads, the publisher may submit bid requests forboth the one large ad, and bid requests for the two small ads, and awardan impression to the arrangement that results in the highest revenue.Specifically, the publisher may ask or instruct a bidding controller orbidding exchange system to issue three bid requests (one for the largerad, and two for the smaller ads), and then yield optimize to serveeither the two small ads or one large ad based on the combined yield. Inaddition, if a publisher can provide ad cells that can be served with,for example, either rich media ad units or non-rich ad units, thepublisher may instruct a bidding controller or bidding exchange systemto issue two bid requests (one for the rich media ad, and one for thenon-rich ad unit), and then yield optimize to serve either the richmedia ad unit or non-rich ad unit based on the combined yield. Moreover,as will be described in more detail below, a bidding controller orbidding exchange system may create an auction and/or bid tablecomprising any combination of ads or ad configurations that could beserved in a location of a publisher's web page. For example, the biddingcontroller or bidding exchange system may test demand and pricesensitivity to an infinite number of possible ad configurations, todetermine which ad configuration may generate the most revenue. Forexample, example, the bidding controller or bidding exchange systemmight create a bidding table causing large non-rich media to competeagainst small, rich media ads, or large interactive ads to competeagainst medium-sized video ads, and so on.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary environment 100 for implementing onlineadvertising auctions. System 100 may include a plurality of advertisers102, publishers 104, ad servers 106, and controllers 108, incommunication with the Internet 101. Advertisers 102 may include anyentities having online advertisements (e.g., banner ads, display ads,rich media ads, pop-ups, etc.) desired to be displayed to online users.Advertisers 102 may interact with publishers 104, ad servers 106, and/orcontrollers 108 through computers connected to the Internet 101. Thus,advertisers 102 may be able to communicate advertising information, suchas ad information, ad sizes, targeting information, consumerinformation, budget information, bidding information, etc., to otherentities in environment 100.

Publishers 104 may include any entities having inventories of availableonline advertising space. For example, publishers 104 may include onlinecontent providers, search engines, e-mail programs, or any entity orprogram having online user traffic. Publishers 104 may interact withadvertisers 102, ad servers 106, and/or controllers 108 via computersconnected to the Internet 101. Thus, publishers 104 may be able tocommunicate inventory information, such as site information, contentlayout, ad layout, available ad sizes and spaces, visitor demographicinformation, cost information, etc., to other entities in environment100.

Ad servers 106 may include any type of servers configured to processadvertising information from advertisers 102 and/or inventoryinformation from publishers 104, either directly or indirectly. Incertain embodiments, ad servers 106 may be remote web servers thatreceive advertising information from advertisers 102 and serve ads to beplaced by publishers 104. Ad servers 106 may be configured to serve adsacross various domains of publishers 104, for example, based onadvertising information provided by advertisers 102. Ad servers 106 mayalso be configured to serve ads based on contextual targeting of websites, search results, and/or user profile information. In someembodiments, ad servers 106 may be configured to serve ads based oninformation and instructions received from controllers 108.

Controllers 108 may include one or more computing systems configured toreceive information from entities in environment 100, process theinformation, and generate instructions for executing an auction ofdiverse ads, according to methods described herein. Controllers 108 mayinclude any type or combination of computing systems, such as clusteredcomputing machines and/or servers. In one embodiment, each controller108 may be an assembly of hardware, including a memory 112, a centralprocessing unit (“CPU”) 114, and/or a user interface 116. Memory 112 mayinclude any type of RAM or ROM embodied in a physical storage medium,such as magnetic storage including floppy disk, hard disk, or magnetictape; semiconductor storage such as solid state disk (SSD) or flashmemory; optical disc storage; or magneto-optical disc storage. CPU 114may include one or more processors for processing data according toinstructions stored in the memory. The functions of the processor may beprovided by a single dedicated processor or by a plurality ofprocessors. Moreover, the processor may include, without limitation,digital signal processor (DSP) hardware, or any other hardware capableof executing software. User interface 116 may include any type orcombination of input/output devices, such as a display monitor,keyboard, and/or mouse.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a process flow for providing anelectronic marketplace for auctioning diverse advertising inventoryconsistent with an embodiment of the present invention. Marketplace 110may include advertiser 102, campaign optimizer 152, exchange 154, andpublisher 104. In one embodiment, campaign optimizer 152 and/or exchange154 may be executed on one or more servers operated, for example, by anadvertising network 150, or any other type of programmatic buyer.Advertiser 102 may have an advertising campaign and wish to purchase oneor more cells on a web page to display the campaign advertisements. A“cell” may correspond to a slot for placing a particular advertisementat a particular place and time. For example, a slot for presenting aclickable Internet advertisement for a product or service (theparticular ad) on a client's Internet browser (a particular networksegment) may correspond to a cell. An impression may occur when theadvertisement is placed in a cell and presented at the particular placeand time. Each cell may be part of a campaign of cells, or anadvertising campaign.

Further, as part of its advertising campaign, advertiser 102 may developone or more campaign goals 120. A campaign goal may describe one or moremetrics, such as profitability and cost that are to be maximized orminimized during the campaign. A campaign goal may include a list ofdelivery terms for the campaign to indicate preferences and/ortolerances of advertiser 102. For example, advertiser 102 may include adelivery term to instruct that no more than $1,000 per month should beexpended during the advertising campaign. Advertiser 102 also may desireto set a proportion of delivery or impressions between one more ad sizesor layouts, as well as a proportion of delivery or impressions betweenrich media ads vs. non-rich media ads.

Advertiser 102 may send campaign goals 120 to campaign optimizer 152.Campaign optimizer 152 may use campaign goals 120 to formulate a biddingstrategy for the advertising campaign. For example, campaign optimizer152 may use campaign goals 120 to determine the web pages or types ofweb pages to target for placing advertisements. The group of targetedweb pages for an advertising campaign by advertiser 102 may be referredto as a target inventory. Bids 126 may identify the target inventory bylisting specific web pages and/or ad cells, and/or by describing thepage characteristics of the types of web pages on which advertiser 102would like to place advertisements. Bids 126 may also be grouped by adconfiguration, such as ad size or attribute. The page characteristicsmay include, for example, statistics regarding the viewers of the webpage and the number of times the web page is loaded. As part of thebidding process, campaign optimizer 152 may repeatedly or continuallysubmit bids 126 to exchange 154. A bid 126 may describe the targetinventory of web pages for the advertising campaign as well as specifythe maximum price per advertising request and the maximum request volumethat advertiser 102 desires for the advertising campaign.

Publisher 104 may control inventory on one or more web pages that areavailable for displaying advertisements. Publisher 104 may send requests122 to exchange 154 to inform exchange 154 of the available inventory.Publisher 104 may list inventory sizes and layouts, including thediverse ad configurations that the publisher's web page, or inventorymay accommodate. Further, publisher 104 may maintain statistics anddemographic data regarding the web pages containing the availableinventory. For example, publisher 104 may maintain statistics regardingthe average number of impressions per hour, for each hour of the day,that were created in the past week on a web page containing theavailable inventory.

Further, publisher 104 may include usage information within request 122,such as a base price for the inventory on a web page, below whichpublisher 104 is unwilling to vend the inventory. The usage informationmay also indicate an advertising period [0, T], which represents theperiod of time advertisements are to be placed in the inventory.Further, in some embodiments, publisher 104 may indicate that anadvertisement may be removed from a web page before the end of theadvertising period. Publisher 104 may provide the ad configuration,statistical, demographic, and usage data to exchange 154 as part ofrequest 122. Additionally, the data from publisher 104 may be used bycampaign optimizer 152 to formulate future bids.

Exchange 154 may facilitate the placement of advertisements fromadvertiser 102 onto cells provided by publisher 104 by matching bids 126with requests 122. When a request 122 for advertising space arrives frompublisher 104, exchange 154 may identify all bids 126 that have listedthe web page of the publisher's request 122 within a target inventory.Exchange 154 may then choose the winning bids that will receive at leastsome of the advertising space offered by request 122. Exchange 154 maycontinuously receive requests 122 from publisher 104 and match requests122 to bids 126. Finally, exchange 154 may notify advertiser 102 andpublisher 104 of the winning bids 124. Further, exchange 154 may providedata 128 to campaign optimizer 152 and advertiser 102. For example,exchange 154 may include the demographic and statistical data receivedfrom publisher 104 as part of data 128. As will be described in moredetail below, exchange 154 may award impressions based on variousbusiness rules, control parameters, or metrics, so as to select andmatch requests and ads that maximize yield.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an advertising exchange system consistent withembodiments of the present invention. At step 302, advertiser 102 maycommunicate a campaign goal for at least one advertising campaign tocampaign optimizer 152. A campaign goal may define its associatedadvertising campaign by setting one or more advertiser-specified targetvariables for the associated advertising campaign. An advertisingcampaign, then, may be thought of as a set of user-specified campaigngoals related to a particular advertisement or set of advertisements.Target variables may be any combination of, e.g., advertisingpublication, publication type, ad configurations, cell sizes, connectionspeed, browser type, geographic region of the connection's IP address,industry, seasonal or other calendar or time restraints, proprietarydata, or any other distinguishing feature. For example, advertisementsmay be limited such that a user will only observe an advertisement twiceor three times a day. Target variables may also be based on type ofcontent of an advertising space, or demographic information, such asgender, age, and income. Such variables may belong to advertisingspaces, advertisements, advertisers, publishers, ends users, and/orother parties.

At step 304, campaign optimizer 152 may formulate a bidding strategy foreach advertising campaign of advertiser 102 by creating bids to besubmitted to an exchange 154. A bid may combine advertiser-specifiedtarget variables with optimization target variables designed to maximizeefficiency and profitability of the advertising exchange service. Forexample, a bid may consist of a description of target variables desired,a maximum price advertiser 102 may be willing to pay for eachadvertisement displayed in an advertising space, and the maximum requestvolume advertiser 102 may be willing to buy for the bid. In someembodiments, the maximum request volume may be a percentage of allavailable advertising spaces matching the bid variables. In otherembodiments, the maximum request volume may be represented differently,e.g., as a total number of advertising requests in a specified period oftime.

At step 306, campaign optimizer 152 may submit bids to exchange 154. Incertain embodiments, the bids may be submitted continuously. At step308, exchange 154 may continually receive advertising requests from apublisher 104. An advertising request may specify a particularadvertising space or a group of advertising spaces available to bematched with an advertisement or advertisements. According toembodiments of the present disclosure, a publisher's advertisingrequests may include a plurality of requests to serve ads on thepublisher web page in a first ad configuration and a plurality ofrequests to serve ads on the publisher web page in a second adconfiguration. For example, the publisher may request bids to serve adsin any desired configuration possible on the publisher's web page, suchas different sizes, layouts, media type, capabilities, features (e.g.,animation, pop-ups, roll-overs, etc.) In one embodiment, a publisher mayissue a plurality of ad requests including requests to serve ads on thepublisher web page in the first ad configuration and requests to serveads on the publisher web page in the second ad configuration, where thefirst ad configuration includes one ad unit of a first size and thesecond ad configuration includes two ad units, each of a second size.

At step 310, exchange 154 may match bids from campaign optimizer 152with advertising requests from publisher 104 based on target variablesfound in the bids and the actual variables associated with advertisingrequests. At step 312, exchange 154 may send winning bids to publisher104. In some embodiments, step 312 may include the publishercommunicating information about the advertisement associated with awinning bid. Publisher 104 may then retrieve the selected advertisementfrom its own server or another location. In other embodiments, step 312may include sending the winning advertisements themselves to publisher104. In some embodiments, advertiser 102 may manage some or all of itsown bids and communicate directly with exchange 154 and/or publisher 104with respect to bids for one or more of its advertising campaigns. Inother embodiments, exchange 154 may use any algorithm suitable forselecting one or more winning advertisements from a plurality ofadvertisement bids for a plurality of requests to fill advertisingspaces.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a method for auctioning diverse electronicadvertisements consistent with embodiments of the present disclosure. Atstep 402, an advertising system may collect an inventory of advertisingspaces (i.e., cells) and associated variables. In order to facilitateallocating advertisements among advertising spaces or cells, it may bedesirable to collect information about publishers' inventory based onobservable variables. For example, variables may be any combination ofadvertising publication, publication type, connection speed, browsertype, geographic region of the connection's IP address, industry,seasonal or other calendar or time restraints, or any otherdistinguishing feature. Such variables may be attributes of advertisingspaces, advertisements, advertisers, publishers, end users, and/or otherparties. In one embodiment, the advertising system may collectinformation about publishers' available content layouts, ad layouts, adsizes, and various combinations thereof.

Referring again to FIG. 4 , at step 404, the advertising system maycollect advertisements from advertisers. These advertisements may haveassociated target variables and sizes, as described above. For example,in one embodiment, advertisers may submit various types and sizes ofads, such as any ad formats endorsed and promoted by the InternetAdvertising Bureau (“IAB”). As discussed above, an advertiser may targeta variable only if the variable is public or if the advertiser haspermission to access that variable. In some embodiments, advertisers maysubmit different combinations of variables with the same advertisement,and the system may treat each advertisement variable combination as adiscrete advertisement.

At step 406, in one embodiment, a bid price and a target inventorypercentage may be determined for each submitted advertisement based onthe advertisement's associated target variables. The bid price may bethe maximum price the advertiser of a particular advertisement iswilling to pay for each advertising request. The target inventorypercentage may be the maximum percentage of inventory that matches thevariables that the advertiser is willing to purchase. In someembodiments, for an advertisement in inventory to be considered to matcha set of variables, the advertisement must match all target variables.In other embodiments, an advertisement may be considered a match if itmatches a single target variable or a defined percentage of targetvariables. In some embodiments, the bid price and/or target inventorypercentage may be determined by the campaign optimizer 152 and/orcontrollers 108, as described above. In some embodiments, the bid priceand/or target inventory percentage may be calculated using algorithmsthat utilize data collected by the system about the success and value ofprevious advertising campaigns and advertisements. In other embodiments,the advertiser may submit the bid price and/or target inventorypercentage for a particular advertisement, thus reducing or eliminatingthe necessity for the system to calculate those numbers at step 406.

At step 408, the system may receive a request from a publisher for anadvertisement to fill a specified advertising space. For example, asdescribed above, the publisher may request to fill advertising space ina plurality of different configurations. For example, the publisher mayrequest to have its web page served with advertisements in both a firstsize and a second size, or in both a first image type and a second type,or in both a first media type and a second media type, or in both afirst layout and a second layout, and so on. Moreover, the publisher mayrequest to have its web page served with ads having differentcombinations of sizes and features. For instance, the publisher mayrequest to be served with the highest yielding ads among a competitionof small rich ads vs. large static ads, or small interactive ads vs.medium-size video ads, and so on. In order to fill the request, thesystem identifies all qualified advertisements, e.g., thoseadvertisements whose target variables match the variables of thespecified advertising space. The system may then generate a bid tablelisting all qualified advertisements, ranked in descending orderaccording to bid price (step 410). In one embodiment, the bid table mayinclude two or more of the ad configurations requested to be served bythe publisher.

Examples of such bid tables according to embodiments of the presentinvention are shown in FIGS. 5-7 . The bid table may include anadvertisement and a bid price for each advertisement. The advertisementmay include an identifier used to uniquely identify each advertisementavailable in the system. In other embodiments, the bid table mayincorporate other variables and/or qualified advertisements may beranked according to variables other than bid price.

Referring again to FIG. 4 , in some embodiments, advertisements may beselected from the top of the bid table at step 412 one-by-one until thesum of the target inventory percentages of the selected advertisement isequal to or greater than 100%. In some embodiments, if two or moreadvertisements have the same bid price and the addition of any one ofsuch advertisements would cause the sum target inventory percentage ofselected advertisements to be greater than or equal to 100%, all suchadvertisements become selected advertisements.

In some embodiments, impressions for the specified advertising space maythen be allocated at step 414. In certain embodiments, advertisementsmay be allocated randomly among selected advertisements without regardto the target inventory percentage for each advertisement. In otherembodiments, impressions for the specified advertising space areallocated in proportion to the target inventory percentage for eachselected advertisement, with the last-selected advertisement receivingonly the percentage required for the total sum of inventory percentagesof selected advertisements to equal 100%.

In one embodiment, for each impression, the advertiser may be charged atthe maximum bid price for the selected advertisement, meaning that thecost of placing an advertisement in the same advertising space maydiffer by each impression according to the advertisement beingdisplayed. In some embodiments, the ordering of advertisements accordingto bid price or any other variable may be carried out continuously or atany time during the process of FIG. 4 , for example, before a request isreceived from a publisher in step 408.

In some embodiments, further controls may be implemented that may affectthe allocation of impressions among selected advertisements. Variablesof advertisers or advertising spaces may limit advertisements based on anearly infinite variety of categories. For example, a publisher maylimit the percentage of impressions that may be filled by a singleadvertiser or a single advertisement. Such a limit may be implemented,for example, by publisher, by advertising space, by web page, and/or bya time period, among other variables.

FIGS. 5A-5C are schematic diagrams reflecting an auction of diverse weband/or mobile advertisements over the Internet, according to anexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, FIG. 5Adepicts a publisher's web page 502, including a content area 506, wherethe publisher may display text, images, videos, or any other web contentconsistent with the publisher's publishing interests. Because of theshape or layout of content area 506, the publisher's web page 502 mighthave a space for two relatively small ads 510, 512. For example, thepublisher's web page 502 might have room for two 300×250 pixel ad units.

Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 5B, the publisher might design andpublish an alternative layout web page 504. As shown in FIG. 5B, thepublisher's web page 504 might still have a content area 508 that issimilar in size and content to content area 506. However, web page 504may be configured for one relatively larger ad 514. For example, thepublisher's web page 504 might be configured to be served with one300×600 pixel ad unit. As discussed above, traditionally, a publishermight have been forced to pick between the layout of web page 502 andthe layout of web page 504, and request bids only on the ad(s)associated with the selected layout. However, according to aspects ofthe present disclosure, the publisher may submit requests for bids onboth (i) the combination of two small ads 510, 512, and (ii) the onelarger ad 514. Thus, as shown in FIG. 5C, either the publisher 104 orexchange 154 (executed by ad servers 106 and/or controllers 108) maygenerate a bid table 516, including requests for bids on each of ads510, 512, 514. In one embodiment, the exchange 154 (executed by adservers 106 and/or controllers 108) may implement certain controlparameters or business rules. For example, exchange 154 may ensure thatbids are received or generated for either the larger ad 514, or both ofthe smaller ads 510, 512, to ensure that web page layout 502 is notdisplayed with only one of the smaller ads 510, 512. It should beappreciated that the smaller ads 510, 512 need not be positioned in thesame place as where the one larger ad 514 would have been placed. Forexample, the smaller ad 512 may alternatively be positioned in thelocation reflected in dashed lines. In other words, while theconfigurations of FIGS. 5A and 5B may be alternatives that competeagainst each other in bidding, they may in some embodiments have adscovering differing locations and/or amounts of area.

Similarly, FIGS. 6A-6C are schematic diagrams reflecting an auction ofdiverse web and/or mobile advertisements over the Internet, according toanother exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically,FIG. 6A depicts a publisher's web page 602, including a content area606, where the publisher may display text, images, videos, or any otherweb content consistent with the publisher's publishing interests. Basedon the shape or layout of content area 606, the publisher's web page 602might have space for an image ad 610. For example, the publisher's webpage 602 might have space for one 300×600 pixel ad comprising a staticimage that a user could click through to a landing page, by clickinganywhere on the static image.

Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 6B, the publisher might desire topublish a web page 604 having a content area 608 that is similar in sizeand content to content area 606, but instead offer the advertising spacefor bids on a rich media ad, such as video ad 612. For example, thepublisher may desire to solicit bids on advanced ads that have variousFlash-enabled features, roll-over features, pop-up features, diverseclick responses, etc. As discussed above, traditionally, a publishermight have been forced to pick between soliciting bids only on eitherimage ads 610 or rich media, e.g., video ads 612. However, according toaspects of the present disclosure, the publisher may submit requests forbids on both image ads 610 and rich media, e.g., video ads 612. Thus, asshown in FIG. 6C, either the publisher 104 or exchange 154 (executed byad servers 106 and/or controllers 108) may generate a bid table 614,including requests for bids on each of image ads 610 and rich media,e.g., video ads 612. In one embodiment, the exchange 154 (executed by adservers 106 and/or controllers 108) may implement certain controlparameters or business rules. For example, exchange 154 may adjust bidprices B1, B2, or related bid allocation values to ensure that image ads610, and/or video ads 612 are displayed in a proportion that maximizesrevenue and/or satisfies one or more of the publisher's and advertisers'goals.

FIGS. 7A and 7B are schematic diagrams reflecting an auction of diverseweb and/or mobile advertisements over the Internet, according to anexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, FIG. 7Adepicts a publisher web videos, or any other web content consistent withthe publisher's publishing interests. Web page 700 may also include anarea for displaying one or more different advertisement configurations704 ₁ through 704 _(n). That is, web page 700 may be configured toreceive and display any desired type or combination of ad configurations704 ₁-704 _(n). In one embodiment, each ad configuration 704 may includea different sized ad or combination of sizes of ads. For example, one adconfiguration 704 may include space for one ad unit, whereas another adconfiguration 704 may include space for two or more ad units. It shouldbe appreciated that the ad configuration 704 need not be limited to theposition shown with respect to content 702. For example, any adconfiguration 704 may actually interspersed with content 702, such asincluding one or more smaller ads positioned anywhere on web page 700,optionally in and among content 702. In one embodiment, each adconfiguration 704 may be a different type of standardized ad unit, thespecifications of which may be managed by the Internet AdvertisingBureau. For example, each ad configuration 704 may facilitateadvertising using a different type of ad format, such as a standardizedimage, a video, a Flash display, a pop-up, a roll-over animation, agame, an interactive user interface, HTML5, or any other rich adexecution.

As described above, the exchange 154 and/or controllers 108 may use thevarious ad configurations 704 ₁-704 _(n) made available by the publisherof web page 700, and place them into a bid table, such as the bid tableof FIG. 7B. Even though the ad configurations 704 ₁-704 _(n) may becoextensive over the same area of the web page 700, they may each beplaced into a bid table to cause advertiser bidding on each of thepossible ad configurations. Thus, publisher 700 may determine which adconfiguration provides the highest yield, subject to various deliveryparameters or business rules, and instruct exchange 154 and/orcontrollers 108 to allocate delivery of impressions among adconfigurations 704 ₁-704 _(n) so as to maximize yield. Moreover, in oneembodiment, business rules may be layered, to allow advertisers and/orpublishers to frequency cap the number of impressions served for oneparticular ad configuration over another.

As described above, the increased diversity and selection of availablead configurations may improve advertiser satisfaction and improverevenue, by maximizing yield obtained across multiple possible adconfigurations. For example, the diversity of ad configurations may helpto increase overall bid density and therefore yield for publishers.Moreover, both bid density and premium bid prices for larger, morefeatured ad units may drive yield up, as well as availability of morepremium ad units for advertisers to bid on.

The many features and advantages of the disclosure are apparent from thedetailed specification, and thus, it is intended by the appended claimsto cover all such features and advantages of the disclosure which fallwithin the true spirit and scope of the disclosure. Further, sincenumerous modifications and variations will readily occur to thoseskilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to theexact construction and operation illustrated and described, andaccordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resortedto, falling within the scope of the disclosure.

Other embodiments of the disclosure will be apparent to those skilled inthe art from consideration of the specification and practice of theinvention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification andexamples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spiritof the invention being indicated by the following claims.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. A computer-implemented method for executing anonline auction of diverse online advertisements (“ads”), the methodincluding: receiving, by a processor of an advertising network serverover a computer network, a plurality of ad requests from a processor ofa publisher server, the plurality of ad requests including variables forserving online ads on a publisher web page, the variables including atleast (i) a first ad configuration associated with a sub-region of thepublisher web page, and (ii) a second ad configuration also associatedwith and coextensive over the sub-region of the publisher web page,wherein the second ad configuration is different from the first adconfiguration; receiving, by the processor of the advertising networkserver over the computer network, a plurality of ad bids from aprocessor of an advertiser server, the plurality of ad bids includingbids to serve ads in the first ad configuration and bids to serve ads inthe second ad configuration, each of the plurality of ad bids includingtarget variables, the target variables including at least one or more adconfigurations; matching, by the processor of the advertising networkserver, the plurality of ad requests to the plurality of ad bids basedon the variables of the plurality of ad requests and the targetvariables to identify a portion of the plurality of ad bids thatsatisfies the variables of the plurality of ad requests; determining, bythe processor of the advertising network server, a bid price for each adassociated with the portion of the plurality of ad bids; generating, bythe processor of the advertising network server, a table that lists adsassociated with the portion of the plurality of ad bids in descendingorder based on the respective determined bid price; determining, by theprocessor of the advertising network server, based on the generatedtable, which of the ad bids, of the portion of the plurality of ad bids,maximize yield by applying one or more control parameters; andselecting, by the processor of the advertising network server, one ormore ad bids, of the portion of the plurality of ad bids, to serve adsin the first ad configuration and to serve ads in the second adconfiguration, based at least in part on the determination of the adbits that maximize yield.
 22. The computer-implemented method of claim21, further comprising: generating one ad request for an ad of a firstpixel size for the first ad configuration; and generating one ad requestfor an ad of a second pixel size for the second ad configuration. 23.The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein the first adconfiguration includes a first combination of ad units, and the secondad configuration includes a second combination of ad units.
 24. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein the first adconfiguration includes a rich media ad unit, and the second adconfiguration includes a non-rich media ad unit.
 25. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein the publisher web pageis configured to display advertising in either the first adconfiguration or the second ad configuration each time it is displayedon a web browser.
 26. The computer-implemented method of claim 21,further comprising: generating an auction item for each of the first adconfiguration and the second ad configuration; and executing an onlineauction to award an impression to a bid to serve an ad in the first adconfiguration or a bid to serve an ad in the second ad configuration.27. The computer-implemented method of claim 26, wherein the bids toserve ads in the first ad configuration are received in combination witha first bid price, and the bids to serve ads in the second adconfiguration are received in combination with a second bid price. 28.The computer-implemented method of claim 27, further comprising:calculating a first aggregate revenue amount based on the first bidprice; and calculating a second aggregate revenue amount based on thesecond bid price.
 29. A system for executing an online auction ofdiverse online advertisements, the system including: a data storagedevice storing instructions; and a processor of an advertising networkserver, the processor configured to execute the instructions to performa method for executing an online auction of diverse onlineadvertisements (“ads”), the method comprising: receiving, by a processorof an advertising network server over a computer network, a plurality ofad requests from a processor of a publisher server, the plurality of adrequests including variables for serving online ads on a publisher webpage, the variables including at least (i) a first ad configurationassociated with a sub-region of the publisher web page, and (ii) asecond ad configuration also associated with and coextensive over thesub-region of the publisher web page, wherein the second adconfiguration is different from the first ad configuration; receiving,by the processor of the advertising network server over the computernetwork, a plurality of ad bids from a processor of an advertiserserver, the plurality of ad bids including bids to serve ads in thefirst ad configuration and bids to serve ads in the second adconfiguration, each of the plurality of ad bids including targetvariables, the target variables including at least one or more adconfigurations; matching, by the processor of the advertising networkserver, the plurality of ad requests to the plurality of ad bids basedon the variables of the plurality of ad requests and the targetvariables to identify a portion of the plurality of ad bids thatsatisfies the variables of the plurality of ad requests; determining, bythe processor of the advertising network server, a bid price for each adassociated with the portion of the plurality of ad bids; generating, bythe processor of the advertising network server, a table that lists adsassociated with the portion of the plurality of ad bids in descendingorder based on the respective determined bid price; determining, by theprocessor of the advertising network server, based on the generatedtable, which of the ad bids, of the portion of the plurality of ad bids,maximize yield by applying one or more control parameters; andselecting, by the processor of the advertising network server, one ormore ad bids, of the portion of the plurality of ad bids, to serve adsin the first ad configuration and to serve ads in the second adconfiguration, based at least in part on the determination of the adbits that maximize yield.
 30. The system of claim 29, wherein the methodfurther comprises: generating one ad request for an ad of a first pixelsize for the first ad configuration; and generating one ad request foran ad of a second pixel size for the second ad configuration.
 31. Thesystem of claim 29, wherein the first ad configuration includes a firstcombination of ad units, and the second ad configuration includes asecond combination of ad units.
 32. The system of claim 29, wherein thefirst ad configuration includes a rich media ad unit, and the second adconfiguration includes a non-rich media ad unit.
 33. The system of claim29, wherein the publisher web page is configured to display advertisingin either the first ad configuration or the second ad configuration eachtime it is displayed on a web browser.
 34. The system of claim 29,wherein the method further comprises: generating an auction item foreach of the first ad configuration and the second ad configuration; andexecuting an online auction to award an impression to a bid to serve anad in the first ad configuration or a bid to serve an ad in the secondad configuration.
 35. The system of claim 34, wherein the bids to serveads in the first ad configuration are received in combination with afirst bid price, and the bids to serve ads in the second adconfiguration are received in combination with a second bid price. 36.The system of claim 35, wherein the method further comprises:calculating a first aggregate revenue amount based on the first bidprice; and calculating a second aggregate revenue amount based on thesecond bid price.
 37. A computer-readable medium storing instructionsthat, when executed by a processor of an advertising network server,cause the processor to perform a method for executing an online auctionof diverse online advertisements (“ads”), the method comprising:receiving, by a processor of an advertising network server over acomputer network, a plurality of ad requests from a processor of apublisher server, the plurality of ad requests including variables forserving online ads on a publisher web page, the variables including atleast (i) a first ad configuration associated with a sub-region of thepublisher web page, and (ii) a second ad configuration also associatedwith and coextensive over the sub-region of the publisher web page,wherein the second ad configuration is different from the first adconfiguration; receiving, by the processor of the advertising networkserver over the computer network, a plurality of ad bids from aprocessor of an advertiser server, the plurality of ad bids includingbids to serve ads in the first ad configuration and bids to serve ads inthe second ad configuration, each of the plurality of ad bids includingtarget variables, the target variables including at least one or more adconfigurations; matching, by the processor of the advertising networkserver, the plurality of ad requests to the plurality of ad bids basedon the variables of the plurality of ad requests and the targetvariables to identify a portion of the plurality of ad bids thatsatisfies the variables of the plurality of ad requests; determining, bythe processor of the advertising network server, a bid price for each adassociated with the portion of the plurality of ad bids; generating, bythe processor of the advertising network server, a table that lists adsassociated with the portion of the plurality of ad bids in descendingorder based on the respective determined bid price; determining, by theprocessor of the advertising network server, based on the generatedtable, which of the ad bids, of the portion of the plurality of ad bids,maximize yield by applying one or more control parameters; andselecting, by the processor of the advertising network server, one ormore ad bids, of the portion of the plurality of ad bids, to serve adsin the first ad configuration and to serve ads in the second adconfiguration, based at least in part on the determination of the adbits that maximize yield.
 38. The computer-readable medium of claim 37,wherein the method further comprises: generating one ad request for anad of a first pixel size for the first ad configuration; and generatingone ad request for an ad of a second pixel size for the second adconfiguration.
 39. The computer-readable medium of claim 37, wherein thefirst ad configuration includes a first combination of ad units, and thesecond ad configuration includes a second combination of ad units. 40.The computer-readable medium of claim 37, wherein the first adconfiguration includes a rich media ad unit, and the second adconfiguration includes a non-rich media ad unit.